Til' Death Do Us Part
by grouchydragon
Summary: Lance walks to the castle's ballroom for a ceremony. Along the way, he meets up with and finds solidarity in his friends...As well as memories of his relationship with Keith.


Lance was fidgeting with the cuffs of his borrowed Altean regalia when Hunk knocked on his door. He was dressed in similar clothing, but in yellow rather than blue. "We're ready to start when you are Lance."

"Thanks. I'll be down in a minute."

Hunk was quiet for a moment as he assessed Lance. He could practically feel Hunk zeroing in on his bloodshot eyes and the dark circles that rested beneath them. "Everyone will understand if you get cold feet. This a big deal," he said finally.

Lance waved his hand dismissively. "No, I'm fine dude. Do you have the rings?"

"Yeah." Hunk pulled them out of his pocket. Lance nodded and Hunk handed them over to him. Lance slipped on the one with wave patterns carved in a stone that when moved, appeared to be on fire. He put the other, a blue one with fire patterns carved into it, in his pocket. They had been a gift from a grateful planet Voltron had saved.

"You go on ahead. I need a moment."

Hunk shot his friend a concerned look, but did as he asked.

Lance took a shaky breath as he took a look at he and Keith's shared room. There hadn't been enough time for it to change. Keith's gloves were still on the bedside table, along with his knife. His spare pair of shoes was still in the corner. Even his belt was still draped over a chair.

Part of Lance was tempted to see if the pillow still smelled like him. But he pushed that notion aside. There would be plenty of time for that later. If he laid down Lance wasn't sure he'd get up in time for the ceremony.

So Lance steeled his nerves and picked up a bouquet of flowers that somewhat resembled lilies. Lance smiled faintly. Keith had pointed them out in the middle of battle. Come to think of it, doing things during a battle was a habit of Keith's. Take, for example, their first kiss.

 _Things were not looking good for team Voltron. The Galra had somehow found out about their plans to raid the nearest Galra jail and had sent a pretty hefty fighting force. Lance was perched in a balcony firing at anyone who came close to the team. Keith was nowhere to be seen, which worried Lance more than he wanted to admit. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind. No time to think about now. He'd look for Keith after the fighting was over._

 _Suddenly he heard a war cry come from behind him. Lance stayed where he was, firing at another soldier that got too close to Pidge. He braced himself for impact until he heard the unmistakable sound of a sword tearing through armor and flesh. "Nice of you to join the party," quipped Lance._

 _He could hear the grin in Keith's voice and had he not been focused on not dying, Lance probably would have had a mini heart-attack. "Glad to be here." There was a pause, broken by Keith cursing under his breath._

" _What is it?" asked Lance, not taking his eyes of the battle. BAM. Another Galra soldier dropped dead mid-fight with Shiro._

" _We've got company."_

" _How much?"_

" _A lot."_

" _Think you can hold them off? The corridor is narrow enough to give you the advantage."_

" _Definitely. It's what I'm here for." Lance cursed his heartbeat for speeding up. This boy was going to be the death of him one day._

" _Thanks man." Another soldier trying to sneak up behind Hunk fell with a satisfying quickly fell into a rhythm, Lance shooting and Keith slashing. Gradually, Lance noticed some of the Galra were moving back inside the building._

" _Lance! We got all the prisoners out so we're going to blow the place soon. Get out of there!" ordered Shiro over the comms._

" _Got it. Keith!"_

" _I heard. Just one problem, we're still under fire."_

 _Lance looked over his shoulder to find that there was a line of Galra in the corridor. He looked at the ceiling of the corridor. It was barely holding on. "Keith, duck!"_

 _Keith dropped to the ground and Lance fired at the soldier he had been fighting, then at the ceiling. It fell apart just like he had planned. Unlike how Lance had planned, the balcony started to crumble as well._

" _Fuck. We're going to have to jump," he called._

 _Keith nodded and grabbed his hand (Lance filed the moment away in his brain to overanalyze when they were back on the ship and flying away from this darned planet). They launched themselves off the railing and free-fell for a few stories before their jetpacks kicked in. It was not a pretty landing but both boys were able to pick themselves up again and start running to the ship. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw a Galra sentry take aim at Keith. Oh no. Not on his watch. Without even thinking Lance turned around and fired._

" _Lance what the-!" Keith's eyes widened when he saw the fallen sentry. His face clouded over in a thousand different emotions, each passing far too quickly for Lance to decipher until he settled on determination. "Fuck it" he said said before pulling Lance into a kiss._

 _It was rough and messy. But Lance couldn't complain. There was so much energy he could swear he felt something explode. Until he realised that something was the building behind them. They may never have pulled away if Pidge hadn't cut in on the comms. "While I'm glad you two have finally gotten it together, you are kind of in a war zone. Please get back to the ship."_

" _Yeah, got it. Thanks Pidge." Lance grabbed Keith's hand again and the two paladins made a break for the ship._

Lance touched his lips absently. He swore he could feel the tingle of electricity from that kiss, and all the kisses that had followed it. He tried to take his time walking to the Castle's ballroom. Since it was the fanciest, Allura had deemed it the most appropriate to hold the event. Lance would normally agree, but it was too large for such a small gathering. Anywhere but there would have been fine. Anywhere that didn't feel so empty.

He he rounded the corner and heard a clang followed by a familiar voice muttering "Quiznack".

"Hi Pidge."

She looked up from tinkering with her robot and gave a small smile. "Hi Lance."

"You ready?"

"Almost. Lassie's circuit malfunctioned last minute. It's arm won't hold the flowers."

"Want some help?" Lance offered.

"No thanks. I've just about got it." A wire fizzled and Lassie's lights dimmed. "Quiznack. Alright, maybe not 'just about', but I'll get there."

"Take your time. It's not like me or Keith are going anywhere."

Pidge paused. "I guess not. But still, Lassie will be ready to carry those flowers in just a few ticks."

"Like I said, there's no rush. Mind if I hang out with you until you're done with repairs?"

"Be my guest."

"Thanks".

Pidge hummed in assent and went back to her work. There was silence between the two friends leaving Lance's thoughts time to wander. Now that he really thought about it a lot of the big milestones in his and Keith's relationships happened in the middle of a battle. Like them officially getting together.

 _It had been a few weeks after the kiss and something had changed between Lance and Keith. Neither of them had gotten the chance to talk about it due to being in the middle of the war, but it was definitely something. At least lance knew that Keith shared some of his feelings and he could stop pining from afar. So there was that._

 _But they were currently embroiled in a particularly gnarly battle with the Galra, so those thoughts would have to wait._

 _Lance shot another hover chariot's gas tank and dropped to the ground as it exploded overhead. He shot a pair of enemy feet and then again in the chest._

" _Thanks Lance," called Keith._

" _No problem. Duck."_

 _Keith dove to the ground and sliced a pair of enemy feet off while Lance took the shot. Keith jumped back up and stabbed the soldier through the chest._

" _Are you copying me mullet?" Lance asked with a wink._

" _Maybe." A sentry fell to the ground missing it's head._

" _Well you know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery." the Galra soldier that had been charging at them collapsed sporting a brand-new hole through its throat. "Are you trying to flirt with me Keith?"_

 _He snorted. God he had a cute snort. A cute everything actually. "I think I'll leave that to you. Flirting is more your forte." He dodged a shot and feinted to a soldier's right, slashing them open at the last minute._

" _I'm glad we can agree on that." Lance took aim at a Galra drone and fired. It exploded and set off a chain reaction of all the smaller drones it had been controlling._

" _But while we're on the subject…." Keith jumped onto a sentry's back and beheaded it from behind. His face reddened, but that may have been from the heat of battle. "If we get out of this alive, do you want to go steady with me?"_

 _Now Lance's face matched Keith's. He shot a sentry without looking behind him. It fell with a CLANG. "Sorry, could you run that by me again?"_

" _Do you want to make this, whatever this is between us, a thing? Like, a real thing? Not something where we just flirt during training occasionally and maybe steal a kiss once in awhile? A real thing." Keith took out his nervousness by beheading 10 sentries in one fell swoop._

 _Lance was so surprised by the question he almost missed his next target. Almost._

" _If you don't want to, that's fine. Forget I asked-" Keith brought down a sentry by kicking it in the chest and slicing it in half._

" _YES!" Lance shouted._

" _I shouldn't have bothered-wait, what?"_

" _Yes! I'll go out with you!" Lance was so happy he could have flew all the way back to Earth. He settled for blowing a Galra soldier's brains out. "If we survive this, let's start with a date on the bridge. Just the two of us."_

" _I'd like that". Keith smile was so big it was in danger of breaking his face, and Lance's was the same._

" _Congrats you guys," chimed Hunk over the comms. "Now can we please go back to fighting? Can't go on that date if you're dead."_

" _You got it big guy," Lance responded. The two fell back into their usual rhythm, but smiled the entire time they fought._

"I'm done," announced Pidge, breaking Lance out of his trip down memory lane.

"Awesome."

She packed up her stuff and dusted her own fancy outfit as she rose."You coming?"

"Yeah, I'll catch up. You go on ahead."

Pidge pursed her lips but made her way to the ballroom with Lassie in tow. Lance stayed where he was for a while before following, although at a slower pace. He traced the carvings on the wall as he went, wondering not for the first time what they meant.

He paused for a moment in front of one particularly interesting one when Coran came around the corner. "Lance m'boy! How are you?"

"A little nervous I guess, but fine." Lie. Lance doubted anybody was feeling "fine" today.

"It's the big day today."

"Yeah."

Coran's smile was replaced with a more concerned expression. "You don't have to be there Lance. Not if you don't want to."

"That's what Hunk said. I'm fine Coran, really." There was that lie again. Lance forced a smile to try and sell it.

Coran looked skeptical but shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do. Really." Not technically a lie. Feeling and saying were two different things.

"Want to walk with me there?"

"Sure." The two fell into a thankfully slower pace, as Coran sensed Lance's reluctance. Something Lance was grateful for. While he wanted to get there, Lance was in no hurry. Acknowledging it made it more real.

His mind once again went back to memories to distract himself from what he was walking towards. Keith had _really_ liked to use battle as a starting point for them. Even their first "I love you" had been said while kicking Galra ass. Though to be fair, that one had been his fault too.

 _It seemed the universe had made a habit of putting Team Voltron in tight spots, thought Lance as he fired through a line of sentries._

" _Nice shot!" called Keith as he slashed a drone in half as he dangled from the ceiling by one arm. Much to Lance's relief, he dropped down and started fighting another soldier. Lance had said before and he would say it again, loving this boy was going to kill him one of these days._

" _Thanks babe! You're doing pretty good yourself!" Lance dropped to one knee to take out a hover chariot. The explosion lit the sky and the battleground, allowing Lance to see that across the canyon, a makeshift booth was set up with Galra soldiers and sentries frantically pushing buttons. "Keith!"_

" _I see it!" Keith split a Galra's head open like a cantaloupe. "Can you hit them?"_

" _No," Lance fired at another sentry. "It's too far away. But I can hit the canyon if I get close enough."_

 _Keith was silent as he slashed through the ranks for a moment. "Do you think you could fire a line to the other side?"_

 _Lance smirked. "Thought you'd never ask. Shiro? Did you hear the plan?_

" _Yes. Do it, we'll be fine. But be careful. That station looks heavily guarded."_

" _Got it." Lance and Keith broke into a run mowing down anything that stood in their way. When they got to the canyon's edge, Lance grabbed Keith's shoulder. "Wait. since we might die, i have something to say to you."_

 _Keith blinked. "So do I actually. On three?"_

 _Lance nodded. "One, two, three, I LOVE YOU!" they yelled in unison. The two stared at each other before sharing a quick but passionate. Lance fired the line. "Go, I'll be right behind you." He felt his grin threaten to split his face in two._

 _Keith nodded, to happy to give a verbal response. Those Galra soldiers didn't even stand a chance._

"Lance? Are you alright?" asked Coran.

Lance shook himself out of the daze. "Yeah I'm fine. I was just remembering."

Coran nodded. The two turned down another hallway in silence until Lance saw that Shiro's door was open. He took a quick glance inside to find Shiro sitting on his bed staring into space. He looked like a mess. Not that Lance could blame him. "I thought Hunk said everyone was ready?"

"I think that was just to get you moving. Worked didn't it?"

"Yeah." Lance glanced back at Shiro. "You go on ahead Coran. I'm going to check on Shiro. We'll be along in a minute."

Coran nodded and quickened his pace. Lance went up to Shiro's door and knocked. "Can I come in?"

Shiro looked up. "Oh, hi Lance. Go ahead." Lance entered and sat down on the chair next to the bed.

"Are you ready to go?"

The question made Shiro jolt in surprise. "Yeah. I just gotta finish buttoning up."

"Take your time. But you should probably shave and fix your hair too dude."

He shrugged, still staring off into space. Lance sighed and hunted down a razor. Shiro didn't move the entire time even when Lance accidentally nicked him. The whole thing reminded Lance of his visits to 98 year old great-grandfather. Not exactly a pleasant thought. Especially when he realized that if and when Shiro's parents died, Lance would be his only family. What would he do then? Lance didn't want to replace Keith as a brother, but what could he do?

For a moment there was silence between the two as Lance worried and Shiro stared at the wall until he whispered, "Lance?"

"Mm?" He paused combing his leader's hair.

"I'm sorry." Shiro's eyes were suspiciously watery. "I am so, so sorry. You two were supposed to be happy. For once I could step back and not have to worry about my baby brother. And when I do-'

"Stop right there buddy. What happened was not your fault. We were all there and yet…" Lance finished parting Shiro's hair and started working on his buttons. "But for what it's worth, I'm sorry too. You lost a lot that day too."

"Thank you." Silence filled the air between the two friends, but it was slightly less awkward. Once again, Lance felt himself drifting back down memory lane while he finished with the final touches on Shiro's suit. This time to how he and Keith had gotten engaged.

 _The fight had started out as a quick little skirmish on some far-off planet, but it soon escalated to a full out battle. It was nothing Team Voltron couldn't handle, but that didn't mean they were having a good time. Except maybe Keith. In the two years they had been together, Lance noticed that Keith tended to use fighting to let out his angst. And Keith had a lot of angst._

 _This was fine (with "fine" being a relative term. Lance's would be much happier if Keith ever decided to find a less dangerous way to work through his anger. Like yoga). But sometimes it lead to Keith getting himself into tight spots. Like now for instance. Keith was surrounded by six Galra soldiers and was barely holding on. "Lance? A little help!"_

" _I'm coming!" Lance fired at the soldier who was currently dueling Keith and one who was trying to sneak in a kill shot. They fell easily. Lance tackled another and shot another on the way down, narrowly missing a shot from another soldier. He shot the one he was sitting on, jumped up and bashed his rifle into the head of another one. He pushed it's limp body into another soldier and shot them both clean through the head._

 _When he was done, Keith was standing there with his mouth open. "Marry me!" he blurted._

 _Lance froze. "What?"_

 _Keith sprang back into action, nerves making his movements faster. "Fuck, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I meant to do that later after I found some rings or some shit. And maybe after I wrote a speech. Or something, I don't know- "_

" _Spit it out Keith!"_

" _Will you marry me? I love you and we might not get another chance. So what do you say?"_

" _I-yes! Yes I will marry you!" Lance felt like he could take out the whole Galra army single-handedly right then and there. He settled for shooting some more sentries._

 _Keith grinned as he sliced a someone's arm off. "This might be the best day ever of my life."_

" _Mine too. If we don't die that is."_

 _Their conversation was interrupted by Hunk sniffling over the comms. "Congratulations you two. Lance I call dibs on making the cake and being your best man."_

" _Who else would I choose? You don't even have to call dibs."_

" _Keith," began Shiro. "As your brother I call dibs on being_ your _best man. And Congratulations you two."_

" _Wait, then what am I?" complained Pidge._

 _Lance shrugged "Godmother?" Both he and Keith turned bright red at the implications of that the second it left his mouth._

" _That's fair." said Pidge. "Hope you're prepared for me to corrupt my future godchild."_

" _Of course."_

Lance finished buttoning Shiro's suit. "I'm done." Shiro blinked, out of his daze. He stood up and gathered his own flowers. Lance joined him.

"Alright then, let's go." Neither party was in a rush or had anything else to get of their chest so they walked to the ballroom in silence.

Lance let his eyes wander down to his wedding/engagement ring. Both he and Keith had agreed they really only needed one. It was more efficient that way. Although he had teased Keith; saying his younger family members would be disappointed that they didn't get the chance to duel for the honor of being ringbearer on the big day. That and Lance's aunt would probably think Keith was cheap. Keith had always rolled his eyes and said that he would deal with that when the time came, and that nothing could stop him marrying Lance; disapproving aunts and small children be damned. He never ended up having to worry about that when the day came though.

He could feel his mind wander to his wedding day. It seemed he would have no peace until he relived it. So he closed his eyes and let the memories come.

 _This was officially the worst battle that Keith and Lance had ever fought in. The Galra had pulled out all the stops. Even Allura was fighting on the ground with them. "KEITH DUCK!" he did, barely missing the shot. Lance took the opportunity to shoot the Galra soldier while Keith was down._

" _Thanks Lance." Keith looked up and tackled Lance just in time to avoid a bullet. He sliced the sentry's feet off while Lance took a shot._

" _Quiznack! That was close." The soldier Allura had been fighting went down. She waved a hand in thanks before tackling another one._

" _Too close." Keith looked like he was contemplating something serious as he spilled a Galra's guts. "Lance, this is the worst battle we've ever been in. I know you wanted to wait until we got back to Earth to get married but how's now?"_

 _Lance dodged a bullet and fired back. While it wasn't exactly how he'd fantasized his wedding day, Keith was right. They could also always have a belated reception back on Earth. So why not? "Sounds great to me."_

 _Keith grinned and turned to Allura. "Allura! Marry us!" Lance was briefly reminded of an Earth movie but went back to fighting._

 _Allura looked up, exasperated. "How? Altean marriages require a dead snaflax, three full moons, and many knives at the very least. I don't even know how Earth marriages work." She zapped a line of sentries._

" _Just make up some vows and pronounce us husbands or some shit like that," yelled Keith as he dueled a soldier."_

" _Are you sure that will be enough?"_

" _Pretty sure. You're a princess and the captain of a ship. I don't think it gets more official than that." Lance fired at a hover chariot. "Please Allura?"_

 _She sighed as she skewered a Galra soldier. "Fine. We are all gathered here today to fight the Galra, but also for the marriage of Keith and Lance apparently. In joining in marriage, they must swear to be loyal, caring, and stick together even when times hit a rough patch. Like right now for instance. You must also swear to be patient, but not so patient that you won't call the other one out on poor behavior. Not Something you two will have a problem with, but no matter. Does anyone oppose to this union?"_

" _Me," said the Galra Keith was fighting. Keith stabbed him and motioned for Allura to go on._

" _Does anybody who actually_ matter _oppose?" There was a chorus of no's from Coran and the other paladins. "Excellent, Keith and Lance, do you two swear to uphold these vows until death parts you?_

" _WE DO!" they yelled in unison._

 _I now pronounce you married. You may seal the deal in whatever way is traditional for humans."_

 _They wasted no time in doing just that, with Hunk covering them with his cannon so they could kiss in peace. They broke apart smiling and went back to fighting with renewed vigor._

" _Hey Lance?"_

" _Yes, Mr. Kogane-McClain?"_

 _Keith laughed again as he disemboweled a soldier. "Remember how when we got engaged I said it was the happiest day of my life? I was wrong, today is-" he was cut of by a shot through the heart._

 _Everything else but Keith falling to the ground seemed to freeze. All Lance remembered was doing the same to his killer and standing over his body for the rest of the battle, protecting it and his friends. He should have died that day. But where Keith's luck had run out, Lance's seemed to be fine._

Lance and Shiro finally made it to the ballroom. Everyone else had already arrived and was standing over a box. They hadn't been able to scrounge up a casket, but Coran had managed to find a crate in the armory. Everyone agreed that it was good enough and that Keith really wouldn't have minded. In fact, he probably would have preferred it. Just last week he and Pidge had been talking about how the funeral business was slowly taking over America.

Lance walked over. He was tempted to caress Keith's cheek, but saw that Allura was about to begin. He settled for laying his flowers down on Keith's chest. Shiro followed suit.

"We are gathered here because we have lost a paladin of Voltron, friend, brother, and husband. Also because Keith said multiple times that if we made a big event ot his funeral, he'd come back as a ghost to haunt us for such foolishness." Hunk let out a watery laugh. " So for his sake, I will try to be brief. I am grateful that we were all able to get to know him and-" Allura sniffed. "That we all had the time with him that we did. Even if we wish it was longer. And we will honor his memory by," She sniffed again, louder this time. "Finishing the job he helped us start." Allura wiped her eyes and sniffed again. "If anyone else would like to say some words before the completion of the ceremony please do so now."

Hunk stepped up, sniffling. "Keith, you were a prickly person at first but once you opened up to people you would straight-up die for someone. I'm gonna miss you buddy." He may have wanted to say more, but the sniffling had built up so much he was crying too hard to form words.

Pidge came forward with Lassie beside her. Lassie laid down more flowers while she nestled a rolled-up scroll among them. Pigde took off her glasses and started to clean them, something she always did when she was trying not to cry. Lance still caught a glimpse of tears. "I'd prefer not to read that, if it's okay," she mumbled. Everyone nodded.

Shiro and Coran shook their heads. All eyes turned to Lance. He stepped forward and transferred a kiss from his fingers to Keith's cold lips. Then he leaned down and whispered into Keith's ear;

"I love you Keith Kogane-McClain. Thank you for doing the same, you wonderful, impulsive, hot-headed man."

Allura sniffed again and cast her hands over the casket. Quintessence enveloped Keith's body and slowly turned it to ash. Allura waved her hands again and Keith's ashes rose up and somehow passed through the glass. Once outside, the slowly drifted through space. "May your remains have a short journey through space until they find your soul again."

It was only then, seeing Keith's ashes drift though the stars did Lance finally break down.


End file.
